It never seems to fail...John leaves and the most "exciting" things happen here. I am ok with deer, elk and once in awhile a bear. I am ok with the occasional racoon raiding the hummingbird feeder.
I am NOT ok with snakes. Here at the lower end of the Rockies we are not supposed to have any. Cough. So today prior to church ( we dont have enough priests to celebrate the Mass on Sunday so its Saturday for us ) I go out to clean the garage. This is a good thing because Stryker has learned to do his business there when he cant get outside - not that I dont try to catch his times but he has a delicate digestive system and gets the hershey squirts frequently. And I will not go into the size of the business he does except to say that compared to poms, its a weeks' worth every day. I am sure you get the idea.....
I open the garage door to spray "things" out and watch in horrified wonder as a snake slithers ( and yes they DO slither ) over to a small wood pile John put by the stairs in front of the house.
OMG...seriously??? Yup. Seriously. I am neither brave nor stupid but my first inclination was KILL IT.
Ok....however it had disappeared into the wood by this time ( seconds, not minutes ).
Quick thinker that I am, I grabbed the watering hose and tried to flush it out. Um no. There was a 3 ft. piece of rebar close to hand so I started moving the wood. Bingo. Snake. It tried to slime its way into the railroad ties that make up the walls of our "flower bed" area. I struck and stuck it with the rebar. It tried to wind its way around the rebar. By now I am close to heart attack, having already gone through the palpatation phase. Every hair on my body is standing straight up or out, as the case my be. Snake wins....although wounded, and makes it into the walls of the flower bed.
I retreat to the house. Legs shaking, heart pounding, I just know 50 of snakey's little brothers are probably already in the house waiting for me. I call my daughter in Colorado who tells me it was probably JUST LOST. Really??????
I did Google and find out that there are only 7 deadly snakes living in New Mexico, 6 of which are rattlers. Peachy. The 7th is a coral snake ( really.....we have coral here ??? who knew...) and its colors are vivid and unmistakeable. Meaning I probably did permanent damage to one of the only creatures here who eat rats and mice and other little nasties who would love to get into the garage and eat the dog food. Not that I will try and find it nor will I do a "catch and release" like I did with the mouse I caught last year. All I could think of then was the cute Disney movies about rodents ( ack...am I crazy??) and I did not have the heart to kill it..long story.
To the best of my knowledge even Disney doesnt think snakes are cute and I have found my limit when it comes to compassion for critters. Instinct kicked in and the Bible says we will strike the serpent with our heels....and had I been in stilettos maybe. However.....for the time being I will stick to rebar, the longer the better, and literally pray for no repeat appearances.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm a catch a release person with every thing else but.
ReplyDeleteSnakes get the 22 right between their slimey (well they're really not slimey) eyes!
We have copperheads here, they are terribe if they strike the pets, my old cocker got bit in the face one, we were lucky to save him. Now i shoot and ask questions later :)with the cats.